This site comprises a
knowledge-base constructed from written materials provided by participants in a graduate seminar in music history at George Mason University during Spring 2017. The course was MUSIC 730 (Advanced Topics in Music History):
Anglo-American Operetta and Musical Theater I. This site's elements are
literature summaries written by participants (originally reported orally in class with audio/video examples),
abstracts of the final research projects conducted by each participant, and
tags (subject headings) for Years, Topics, Persons, Works, and Participants by which all pages are linked together. The course covered the period from the 1870s (jump-started by Gilbert & Sullivan's 1875
Trial by Jury) to the 1930s (peaking with Kern and Hammerstein's 1927
Show Boat). SCALAR provided an excellent tool by which to visualize connections.
Not exactly a "book," the site is not intended to be traversed linearly from a beginning to an end. Rather, one might start on one of the "paths" below, but veer off to explore linked materials and, especially, to read the summaries (representing knowledge on which students were tested). One path is a chronological timeline of years for appearances of some significant works of musical theater (or their inspirations). Another is a path through a list of seminar participants by which their contributions (i.e. written summaries) can be reviewed. There is a path listing the topical/thematic "tags" (subject headings) which link to the literature summaries to which they apply.
Once any element--for example, a particular summary, participant, work, or topic--has been selected, use one of the
visualization schemes (clickable under the "compass" icon in the toolbar at the top of every page) to view its connections to other elements.
Start with any of these
paths below (or, expand the
word-cloud above to full-screen and click any "tag"):
Each student has granted permission for his or her work to be published here. Each can be contacted through me, if further communication is desired. A course syllabus and packet of assignments can be provided upon request.
Steve Gerber, Music Librarian and Adjunct Professor of Music
George Mason University
sgerber@gmu.edu |
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